Santa Ana to house poor in vintage homes

April 19, 2011

Updated Aug. 21, 2013 1:17 p.m.

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This vintage bungalow at 613 E. Sixth Street in Santa Ana will be preserved and moved to 602. E. Sixth St. under a settlement between the city and a group of historic preservationists. H. LORREN AU JR., THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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This house at 507 N. Minter Street in Santa Ana will be preserved and rehabilitated under a settlement between the city and a group of preservation advocates. ANDREW GALVIN, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Citrus fruit grows in a yard near a vintage house on E. Sixth Street in Santa Ana that is slated to be demolished to make way for a redevelopment plan known as the Station District. ANDREW GALVIN, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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These old motor court apartments at 611 N. Minter St. in Santa Ana will be demolished unless a buyer can be found by May 15 under a settlement between the city and a group of historic preservationists. A redevelopment known as the Station District is planned for the area along Santa Ana Boulevard east of downtown. ANDREW GALVIN, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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This vintage bungalow at 613 E. Sixth Street in Santa Ana will be preserved and moved to 602. E. Sixth St. under a settlement between the city and a group of historic preservationists. ANDREW GALVIN, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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A plaque left behind by former residents of 613 E. Sixth St. in Santa Ana. The vintage house will be preserved and moved to 602 E. Sixth St. under a settlement between the city and a group of historic preservationists. ANDREW GALVIN, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

This vintage bungalow at 613 E. Sixth Street in Santa Ana will be preserved and moved to 602. E. Sixth St. under a settlement between the city and a group of historic preservationists. H. LORREN AU JR., THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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SANTA ANA – The City Council voted Monday to preserve 10 older homes that had been slated for demolition. The city-owned homes will be rehabilitated and rented to low-income tenants under an agreement to settle a lawsuit brought by a group of preservation advocates.

The settlement, which also allows for the demolition of eight buildings, paves the way for the city to go forward with a redevelopment plan in a corridor along Santa Ana Boulevard east of downtown. The plan, known as the Station District, calls for the construction of rental and for-sale housing, a park, a community center, and retail space.

The plan was twice halted by a group calling itself Friends of the Lacy Historic Neighborhood, which formed to oppose the demolition of homes in the vicinity of Lacy, Fifth and Sixth streets, some of which date from around 1900.

The Friends of Lacy first sued in November 2009. That case was settled in April 2010, with the city agreeing to revise the Station District's environmental impact report to consider alternatives to demolishing the homes.

The group sued again in July 2010, this time alleging that the revised EIR was inadequate, in part because it failed to include "a detailed survey of the historic qualifications of vintage properties in the area."

With the city's contracted developer, Related Cos., bumping up against a deadline to apply for tax credits needed to construct affordable housing in the Station District, negotiations to settle the second lawsuit recently took on urgency, said Jeff Dickman, a resident of the historic French Park neighborhood and a leader in the Friends of Lacy.

The preservation of the old homes means some of the planned affordable housing won't be constructed, but with the conversion of the old houses into low-income rentals, the plan will actually have a net gain of one affordable unit.

On Monday night, the City Council voted 4-0 to approve the second settlement, including paying $75,000 in attorneys fees for the Friends of Lacy. Three council members – Mayor Miguel Pulido, Mayor Pro Tem Claudia Alvarez and Councilman Vincent Sarmiento – abstained from the vote because of conflicts of interest.

The vote was taken at the beginning of the council meeting, before members of the public were allowed to comment, because Councilman Sal Tinajero needed to leave early. At least four votes were necessary to approve the settlement.

The quick vote led Alfredo Amezcua, a former mayoral candidate and a leader of a group calling for better government in the city, to criticize the council during public comments. He said the council didn't take the time to discuss the effect of the settlement on the city and residents of the Lacy neighborhood.

Amezcua's comments were later refuted by Councilwoman Michele Martinez, who said the council treated the settlement with "great importance," saying it will give "the residents of Lacy who actually live there the opportunity to have great housing."

In other council action on Monday:

 A proposal to set aside $510,000 of federal block-grant money to build two more clay tennis courts in Cabrillo Park was defeated. The money will instead go to the Police Department's helicopter program and to spruce up a brick plaza in the downtown, at Fourth and French streets.

 During a presentation to the council by the city's public works agency, one councilmember after another interrupted the speaker, Deputy City Engineer Souri Amirani, to laud the Latino heritage of the city's downtown shopping district along East Fourth Street.

The spruced-up plaza at Fourth and French will be reminiscent of plazas in Mexican villages, "to celebrate our roots and that this is a Latino city," Sarmiento said.

After the recent removal from the Fiesta Marketplace plaza at Fourth and Spurgeon streets of a carousel popular with Latino families, the upgrades just a block away at Fourth and French are a way to "make sure the personality is put back" in the neighborhood, Alvarez said.

The ethnic cheer was briefly dampened by Pulido, who cautioned that "we also want to be welcoming to all folks."

It's good to have a Latino theme downtown, Pulido said, but it's important that it "doesn't become a 'you're not welcome, if you're not Latino' theme."

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